Hearttouching Moment When An Elephant Attacked By Poachers Still Trusts Humans For Saving His Life

Animals are majestic and graceful creatures who often remember exactly who hurt them. Like other animals, this may cause the creatures to be fearful of all humans after one tragic interaction. However, an elephant named Tim chose to trust humans, all because one man was decent to him and saved his life. Tim is an incredible renowned elephant known as the “Great Tusker” and has learned to trust humans.

16. Tim the Elephant

Image: Hands off Our Elephants YouTube

Tim is a 47-year old elephant who lives in Kenya and is one of the oldest elephants in Kenya. He’s one of the largest tuskers in the world and has tusks that nearly reach the ground – this lets wildlife officials spot him easily. The animals living in Kenya have amazing places to roam. However, life is also dangerous for elephants, who are often the victims of poaching. That’s exactly what happened to Tim. But he was smart and knew where to go for help.

15. Roaming

Image: Hands Off Our Elephants YouTube

Tim was living in Kenya’s Amboseli National Park at the time. He had been wounded behind his ear after someone shot a spear at him. Rather than tending to his wound, Tim went searching for an old friend of his who happens to be a worker at the African Wildlife Foundation.

14. Amboseli National Park

Image: Walk the Wilderness

Amboseli National Park is in southern Kenya. It has many large elephant herds which roam in the area of Mount Kilimanjaro, which is located across the border in Tanzania. Observation Hill offers panoramas of the peak and the park’s plains and swamps. The park is one of the most famous destinations for up-close wildlife viewing and was once home to Echo, known as the most researched elephant in the world.

13. Intelligence

Image: Rajiv Welikala YouTube

Elephants are renowned for their intelligence and understanding. They also apparently have great memories. The smart Tim found his savior, David Bates, on the grounds of the National Park. David heard loud, booming running sounds and immediately ran toward them. David was excited to see his old friend but also knew something must be wrong.

12. Emergency

Image: South African Wildlife Photographs Facebook

David is the chief of security in the area. He was shocked to find his old friend Tim. The elephant had serious wounds. In addition to the arrow behind his ear, he also had head wounds that appeared to have been caused by blunt objects, such as a rock.

11. Agitated

Image: Dailymail

Tim was in an agitated state. However, the presence of David Bates immediately calmed him down. In fact, Tim relaxed so much that he lied down so that the medical team could examine his wounds. They quickly tended to his injuries and discovered that the spear hadn’t pierced his head, it had only injured his ear.

10. Friendship

Image: The Kenya Star

The friendship between David and Tim started two years earlier when Tim had been hit by an arrow. David and his medical staff had come to Tim’s aid. That was back in November of 2014. Their actions probably saved his life. He was suffering from severe inflammation and had surgery to remove the infected flesh.

9. Success

Image: David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust YouTube

The medical team closed the wounds, disinfected them, and wrapped the wounds. For days after, they kept close tabs on the elephant, cleaning his healing stitches. They oversaw his care until he was fit to return to the wild and used a helicopter to monitor how he was doing after his treatment.

8. Pain

Image: David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust Facebook

Exactly two years later, in November of 2016, Tim was once again attacked. He knew he was hurt and in pain, so he did what his memory taught him was the best thing: went in search of medical help from his friends.

7. Saved

Image: David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust Facebook

David Bates was very shocked to see Tim again. He was also surprised that Tim had yet another arrow wound. Thankfully, it was not a serious injury. The Wildlife Foundation treated him and released him back into the wild.

6. Farmers

Image: The Dodo

David believed that this time around, Tim may have been shot by farmers. Many farmers have misconceptions that elephants are dangerous. They use sticks, stones, arrows and spears to stop elephants from coming near their property. The wildlife organization uses special tracking collars now to keep track of how close an elephant comes to a farmer’s crops so they can redirect them if need be.

5. Home

Image: Big Life Foundation

Tim has returned to his home territory in the park. He shares the area with varied wildlife such as giraffes, zebras, cheetahs, and hundreds of bird species. Lake Amboseli provides water, but it runs dry in the drought season.

4. Disney Nature

Image: IMDB

The African Wildlife Foundation partnered with Disney in 2011 to save the Amboseli-Chyulu corridor where Tim and the animals roam. Disneynature released a feature film, “African Cats,” which was selected for a special “See ‘African Cats,’ Save the Savanna” initiative. It led to Disney donating a portion of their opening-week ticket sales. The movie was narrated by Samuel L. Jackson in America and Sir Patrick Stewart overseas. The film follows the adventures of a real-life cheetah and lion cub.

3. 50,000 Acres

Image: Jumia Travel

The Disneynature and African Wildlife Initiative ultimately helped set aside 50,000 acres of the corridor, helping to ensure the future of lions, elephants, and cheetahs as well as the many other charismatic species living in the African Savanna.

2. AWF

The African Wildlife Foundation does conservation, wildlife and habitat protection, community and economic development across Africa. The group helps educate people about animals and wildlife. They work with every endangered species and protect elephants like Tim wherever possible.

1. Human Kindness

Image: PBS

Elephants in Africa would be understandably wary of all humans if this was their only experience with them. But thankfully, some human kindness let Tim know good people exist.